A Million March Against War: Caribbean Britain Speaks Out

Quarterly Jamaica Windrush & Diaspora Update | Published: 3 July 2003 | Period covered: January–June 2003

Key Developments at a Glance

• 15 February 2003: up to two million march in London against the Iraq War; Caribbean community organisations participate.
• Iraq War begins 20 March 2003; Blair’s decision without UN authorisation alienates much of the Caribbean community.
• Baghdad falls 9 April 2003; no weapons of mass destruction are found, deepening public mistrust.
• Robin Cook resigns from Cabinet in protest; his speech cited widely in Caribbean community media.
• Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 comes into force; new restrictions affect established Caribbean residents.
• Macpherson implementation stalls; community organisations document continuing gaps in police reform.

On 15 February 2003, between one and two million people converged on central London to march against the prospective invasion of Iraq — the largest mass demonstration in British history. They came from every part of British civil society: trade unions and peace organisations, faith communities and student bodies, community organisations and political parties. Among them were members of the Caribbean community in substantial numbers, organised through churches, community centres, and the networks that connect the diaspora across Britain’s cities. The Caribbean presence reflected a deep and historically grounded tradition of anti-imperialist politics woven into the fabric of Caribbean community life in Britain.

The Caribbean Community and the March Against War

The mobilisation of the Caribbean community against the Iraq War draws on a tradition reaching back through the anti-apartheid movement, through the campaign against nuclear weapons, through the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and through the Caribbean’s own experience of colonialism and imperial violence. The Caribbean political tradition is one in which the use of military force by powerful Western states against smaller and weaker nations is read with a particular scepticism — not because the Caribbean community is pacifist in any absolute sense, but because it knows from its own history what Western military power has meant for peoples who could not resist it.

The argument that the United Nations weapons inspection process should be allowed to reach its conclusions before any military action was taken found widespread support in the community. When the government announced it would go to war without a specific UN Security Council resolution authorising force, community leaders across Britain expressed unambiguous opposition. This was not a legal or just war, and the Caribbean community would not be silent about it.

The War and Its Consequences for Political Relationships

The Iraq War began on 20 March 2003. Baghdad fell on 9 April. Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed. The weapons of mass destruction that had been cited as the primary justification for the war were not found. For the Caribbean community, which had voted for Labour in exceptional numbers in 1997 and 2001, the Iraq War represented a significant breach in a political relationship built on the expectation that a Labour government would govern on different values from its Conservative predecessors.

The resignation of Robin Cook from the Cabinet on 17 March 2003 — in a speech arguing that the case for war had not been made and that proceeding without UN authorisation was a mistake — was widely quoted in Caribbean community media as an expression of the principle that the government itself had abandoned. Cook became, for many in the community, the marker of what responsible political leadership had required but failed to deliver.

Immigration and Racial Equality: The Domestic Agenda

The political controversy over Iraq has not displaced the domestic concerns of the Caribbean community, but it has complicated the capacity to press those concerns on a government consuming enormous political capital defending the war. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, which received Royal Assent in November of that year, is coming into force through 2003. Its provisions include changes to support entitlements for failed asylum seekers, new offences relating to travel documents, and an expansion of detention powers. Community legal centres report a significant increase in Caribbean residents caught up in enforcement proceedings.

On racial equality, the implementation of the Macpherson Report’s recommendations remains incomplete four years after its publication. The positive duty on public authorities to promote race equality, introduced by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, has not produced the systemic change anticipated. Stop-and-search statistics continue to show Black people being stopped at rates disproportionately higher than White people. The promise of institutional change has not been fulfilled, and the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and community organisations are maintaining the pressure for genuine reform.

Jamaica and the Caribbean: Patterson’s Mandate

In Kingston, PJ Patterson’s People’s National Party has consolidated its position following the October 2002 general election victory — Patterson’s fourth consecutive mandate. The government is managing an economy under sustained pressure from debt service obligations and the need for structural adjustment, while pursuing the Caribbean integration agenda through CARICOM. The Caribbean Court of Justice, whose establishment has been advancing through 2003, represents an important step towards completing Caribbean constitutional independence. The diaspora in Britain follows both dimensions of Patterson’s agenda closely and continues to press for the engagement with Jamaica that the British government has not prioritised.

Sources: Jamaica Information Service; The Gleaner; Jamaica Observer; Caribbean National Weekly; New Nation; The Voice; BBC News; Reuters; AP; The Guardian; Runnymede Trust; Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants; Stop the War Coalition; CARICOM Secretariat; Jamaica High Commission London; Home Office (UK); House of Commons Hansard; Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

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